Arsenal Must Change Their Ways To Contend With Barcelona

Arsenal’s 0-0 F.A. Cup draw with Hull City was no way to gain some momentum ahead of a tricky match with Barcelona. The Gunners need to upgrade their play.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s priority for this match week clearly was not the home fixture against Hull City. He rested three main attacking players in the hope that his team would be fully energized come Tuesday evening. Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud were all moved out of the starting lineup, swapped for Theo Walcott, young talent Alex Iwobi and newly fit Danny Welbeck.

Watching Welbeck specifically gave Arsenal away a bit – the Englishman did not have match practice with his on-field teammates, and it resulted in a typical Arsenal performance that was stymied by a deep-defending Hull City and a great performance from Hull goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic. The Gunners mustered 24 shots in total, 11 of which forced Jakupovic to make saves. They still managed to score no goals.

BBC.co.uk created a positional map for both teams in the game, showing where Arsenal and Hull players both spent the majority of the match. It excellently reflects the dynamic of the game. Hull City’s entire eleven’s average position is in their own half. Arsenal, on the other hand, had only Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker in their own half of the pitch.

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The more interesting thing about the map for Arsenal’s team is the positioning of their attacking players. Danny Welbeck, for his first start in nearly ten months, started on the left side of attacking midfield, with Alex Iwobi in the center and Joel Campbell on the right. All three were “spearheaded” by Theo Walcott up front – but, as the map will show, Walcott’s position is closer to where Campbell is playing.

That’s not all that surprising, though. Walcott is a natural right-sided player. The fact that he is leading the line on his own with three players he doesn’t have behind him very often means that he can’t predict their passing tendencies well. This will resort in him to doing what he does, which is play from the right.

Without a true striker up front, the burden was left to the other attacking midfielders. Welbeck has been out for nearly a year, and if Wenger tells him to play the left side of attacking midfield, that’s where he will be, not up front. Alex Iwobi played in behind where the striker should have been, but he has looked like more of a dribbler and creator than a true finisher thus far for the Gunners. He also did not fill the role of the ‘goal-scorer’ in Arsenal’s team.

After a game where the makeshift goalscoring unit failed to produce, Arsenal are bound to be frustrated. However, the challenge presented by F.C. Barcelona is wholly different and cannot be approached with a “what do we fix from last game in order to win this game?” strategy.